I can witnes that one of no meane parts being invited to a buriall puld out his key in the Church being halfe a sleepe halfe awake and knockt on the pew crying Drawer what is to pay By all which it appeares that drunkennesse deprives men both of wit and memory and yet madly wee persue this vice as the kindler of them but no wonder when the forbidden Tree which promised our first parents knowledge took their knowledge from them the same divell having a hand in both I might proceed to his knowledge in the best things and shew you As drunkards are purblind to worldly wisdome so they are stark blind to heavenly that whereas some are like the Moone at full have all their light towards earth none towards heaven other like the Moone at wane or change have all their light to heaven-wards none to the earth drunkards are like the Moon in Eclips having no light in it selfe nether towards earth nor towards heaven Though they are apt to thinke themselves Giants for wit and Eagles for light and judgement even in Divinity also which makes them so put themselves forward as how often have I seene a case of leather stuft with wind as he in Marcellus Donatus thought himself a very beefe-brain'd fellow that hath had onely impudence enough to shew himselfe a foole thrust into discourses of religion thinking to get esteeme when all that he hath purchased thereby hath beene onely the hisse of the wise and a just derision from the abler judgements not unlike that Germane Clown who undertooke to be very ready in the ten Commandements but being ask'd by the Minister which was the first he answered thou shalt not eat If you doubt of it doe but aske the drunkard a reason of his faith and you shall see hee can no more tell you then the winde can tell which last blew off my hat Or onely heare him relate what the Minister spake for seldome but hee stumbles at and mistakes his words for as when S. Augustine justified free will against the Manichees the ignorant would take him for a Pelagian and when he denied free-will to the Pelagians they would take him for a Manichee when he was neither but disputed against both the extreames the one utterly denying it the other too highly extolling it so when the Minister teacheth that it is impossible for a man to bee justified by his workes bee they never so glorious and exact performaÌ„ces these brutish drunkards wil cry out he condemneth good works if he shew them the necessity of living well they 'll thinke hee excludeth faith from justifying let him prove it a dead faith which is without good workes and those good workes but shining sins which are without faith and shew that both faith and workes are equally necessary to salvation and they will understand hee meanes them both as meritorious causes whereas he acknowledgeth neither but faith as an instrument good workes as a necessary concomitant God alone the efficient and Christ alone the meritorious cause of salvation for know this that good workes cannot justifie us before the severe Tribunall of Almighty God our workes deserve nothing it is onely in Christ that they are accepted and onely for Christ that they are rewarded Neither is it faith which properly saves us but the righteousnesse of Christ whereon it is grounded by grace yee are saved through faith Ephesians 2.8 It is the God of truth that speakes it and woe unto him that shall make God a lyer by grace effectually through faith instrumentally we are not justified for the onely act and quality of believing it is the justice of Jesus that justifies us which faith apprehends it was the brazen Serpent that healed not the eye that looked on it yet without a looking eye there was no helpe to the wounded party by the promised vertue It is true our Adversaries oppose this doctrine both with Pens and Tongues violently in the Schooles invectively in the Pulpets but come they once to their death-beds to argue it betweene God and their owne soules then grace and grace alone mercy and onely mercy Iesus and none but Iesus this their great Belweather is driven to confesse yea saith another give us this faith and then let our enemies doe their worst the Devill tempt the world afflict sinne menace death afright yet faith will vanquish all through the righteousnesse of Iesus Christ Againe let a Minister speak against affectation of learning in Sermons they will say he condemnes learning let him tell such as live and allow themselves in drunkennesse adultery swearing deceiving c. that they are in a damnable condition and in a reprobate sense they will say he calls them reprobates and judgeth them damned in all which they resemble the Saddâ—ces who tooke occasion to deny the Resurrection from that wholsome doctrine taught that we should neither serve God for reward nor feare of punishment but meerely out of obedience and love or the Iewes who when Christ speake of the Temple of his body understood him to meane the materiall Temple and thereupon tooke great exceptions Yea we have a world of such amongst us who seeme Malchus like to have their right eares cut off they heare so sinisterly And rather then not carpe if the Minister but use a similitude for ornament and illustration sake borrowed from nature or history they will say he affirmes the matter thereof possitively to be true like as that simple fellow thought Pontius Pilate must needs be a Saint because his name was put in the Creede And so much to prove that the Drunkard hath neither wit nor memory § 42. HAve we yet done no An unpardonable crime not to drinke as they doe I would we had I would we were well rid of these filthes but let us proceed in speaking as they doe in drinking By that time these gutmongers have gulped downe so many quarts as either of their names hath letters in it they have drawne in some fresh man who perhaps after the third health refuseth to drinke any more being of Diogenes his humor who being urg'd at a banquet to drinke more then he was willing emptied his glasse upon the ground saying if I drinke it I not onely spill it but it spills me so this mans unacustomed rudenesse and monstrous inhumanity begins a quarrell For it is an unexcusable sault or as I may say an unpardonable crime to refuse an health or not to drinke equall with the rest or to depart while they are able to speake sense and this they can almost prove for was not Pentheus son to Echion and Agave by his owne Mother and Sister torne in peeces for contemning of Bacchus his feasts hereupon many have lost their lives because they would not drinke but happily by Gods blessing and the parties patience in bearing their fowle language he hath delivered himselfe of their company at which they are so vexed that they gnaw their owne tongues for spight and
they can not sedute us they wil envie and hate us because wee will not run with them to the same excesse of ryot 1 Iohn 3.12 Prov. 29.27 Psalme 69.12 Every man is borne a Caine envying that good in another which hee wants himselfe but a swinish drunkard delights to see the temperance sobriety 1. How drunkards envie the sober and censionable and other eminent graces of him that feares God and will not doe as he doth as fore eyes delight to look upon the Sun Lot vexed himselfe because hee saw men bad these because men are good not that God's Law is broken but because others keepe it better than themselves It is true envie knowes what it will not confesse but experience shewes that sordid drunkards are as full of envie towards such as will not consort with them as a Serpent is full of poyson And you may know it by this token doe they not make it their Grace both before and after dinner to disgrace such an Innocent O that so many Loaves and Fishes as did feed five thousand in the Wildernes would but stop their mouths that envie and speake evill of such as they know no other fault by but their vertue they pick their owne sorrowes out of the joyes of other men and out of others sorrowes likewise they assume their owne joyes whereas worth begets in those that are magnanimous emulation in base minds it contrarily begets envie will you know the reason Hee that hath lost all good himselfe is vexed to see it in another and can no way be pacified except that other become as bad as himselfe as Demonides having himselfe crooked feet and losing both his shoes to be even with him that had found them desired the gods that the parties feete might be as crooked as his shoes were But how just is it with God that this fire of enuy should be punished with the fire of Hell § 88. 2 SEcondly as is their enuy 2 How they will haâ—e them such is their hatred and malice they hate the good because they will not be so evill as themselves Micha 3.2 Mathew 10.22 Iohn 15.19 1 King 22.8 Proverbs 29.27 The temperance and sobriety of a good man is as great a vexation to them as their conversation is to him for as if Nature had made them antipathites to vertue they so hate righteousnesse that they will hate a man for it and say of good living as Festus did of great learning it makes a man mad but they cannot know who are sober that are mad themselves Neither is this of theirs an ordinary hatred VVhich hatred is the most bitter and exorbitant of all others for they even eate their owne hearts in anger that they cannot eate ours in revenge we pray for the opening of their eyes and they pray for the pulling out of ours we desire the turning of their hearts and they wish the cutting of our throats no such concord no such discord saith one of the Learned as that which proceeds from Religion My name saith Luther is more odious unto them then any thiefe or mutherer as Christ was more detestable to the Iewes then Barrabas Behold saith David mine enemies for they are many and they hate me with a cruell hatred Psal 25.19 yea so cruell that it makes their teeth gnash and their hearts burst againe Acts 7.54 which made the truth's adversaries give St. Paul stripes above measure and the Heathen Emperours to devise such cruel Tortures for all those which but profest themselves Christians You cannot anger a sotted drunkard worse then to doe well yea he hates you more bitterly for this and the credit you gaine thereby then if you had cheated him of his patrimony with your owne discredit That there is no hatred so virulent and bitter as that which is occasioned by vertuous living and professing of Christ's name our Saviour himselfe proves copiously Math. 10. Luk. 21. where he shewes that it makes them forget all naturall affection whether it be that which descends as of Parents to children or that which ascends as of children to Parents or that which is mutuall of Friends Kindred or Brethren one to another so that be they never so neere allied they shall betray each other and cause them to dye even for his names sake as the Text hath it Neither doth their malice extend it selfe to this or that person onely but these Hamans so hate the Religious that they wish as Caligula once did of the Romans that they had all but one head that so they might cut it off at a blow were it in their power Ester 3.6.8.9.13 Micha 3.2 Psal 83.4 But our comfort is they have not so much authority as malice resembling the Serpent Porphyrus which abounds with poyson but can hurt none for want of teeth § 89. How their envy and hatred vents it selfe at the mouth and hands NOw you must know that this envy and hatred of theirs is too strong to containe it selfe within the heart and thereupon breakes forth at their mouth and hands Besides seeing the former stratagems will not prevaile and that they cannot allure nor perswade to drunkennesse and the like sinnes and so worke their wills upon the sober and conscionable by subtilty faire meanes they wil seek to compel and enforce them to do as they do like as when lustfull Amnon could not winne Tamer by faire meanes he deflowers her by force For as the Devill who raignes as a Prince in the world of the ungodly Eph. 2.2 is for strength a Lyon and a Fox for wit so is the world it self if it cannot infect us it will afflict us if it cannot corrupt our soules it will taynt our good names it is not like some bashfull Suter easily answered but so impudent that while we have breath it will never give us over thinking that so long as there is life there is hope Now to effect their end and bring about their purpose they use divers and sundry meanes venting their hearts at their mouthes in words and by action in their hands with their mouthes they wil censure scoffe at revile raile on nicke-name slander falsely accuse curse threaten c. and with their hands they will at least if they may be permitted imprison smite hurt and lastly if all this will not doe they will kill us as there be more wayes to the wood then one To reckon up all the trickes they doe and would use if the law restrained them not and to reckon up how many Creatures in the Vniverse were a taske equally possible and endlesse besides it would overmuch swell the heape and the Pages like fish would grow into a multitude wherefore I will select out onely two verball properties of their enuy and hatred and passe over the rest The malice and enuy of drunkards vents it selfe at their mouthes either 1 By censuring or 2 By slandering us § 90. 1 FIrst At their mouthes first by censureing the
with us Have wee a warrant out of the word are wee in the path of Gods protection in the way wherein the Angels guard and watch Let us go on valiantly and not feare what men or divels can doe unto us When Ioseph had a command from God to goe out of Egypt into the Land of Israel after Archelaus succeeded his father Herod he was sore affraid and as it seemeth loath to go yet considering that God had commanded him he disputeth no longer with flesh and blood but goeth his way Mat. 2.22 It is too much tendernesse to respect the scoffes and censures and threats of others when wee have a direct word from God the fearefull sluggard will cry a Lion in the way Pro. 26.13 yea but the Scriptures cry an Angell yea many Angels to stop the Lions mouth the Lion is in those by-wayes in which the Prophet walked 1 Kin. 13.24 On the other side if God take no charge of us but when wee are in our wayes yea in his by having a warrant out of the Word how are they in their wayes who spend their whole time in drinking swearing whoring c. who persecute the godly for keeping close to this Word If that be Gods way where did he chalk it out where or in what part of his Word hast thou a warrant to doe these things or to hate persecute revile slander reproach contemne deride or censure men for being holier and more temperate then thy selfe If thou want his word looke not for his protection and miserable is that man who in dangerous actions is left to his owne keeping it fares with him touching his spirituall adversaries as with the Deere that leapes over the Park pale and straggles abroad which a hundred to one doth cost her her life or as it did vvith Shemei vvhen hee past his bounds set him by the King vvho lost his life for his labour 1 King 2.42.43.46 As for example Pharaoh and his Host were out of their way when they pursued the children of Israel going out of Egypt but how sped they the Sea devided to let the Israelites pass but swallowed them up quicke Exod. 14.28 Baalam was out of his way when hee rode to Balack with an intent to curse Israell when God had forbidden him so to doe but the Angel of the Lord met him with a naked sword and had slaine him if the Asse had not turned away Numb 22.33 Sampson was out of his way when hee went in to the harlot Dalilah or els God had not departed from him neither could the Philistims have bound him Iudg. 16 20.21 Ionas was out of his way when he was sayling to Tarshis God having sent him to Ninive but how sped hee the windes and waves stormes and tempests conspired together to crosse him and would not be pacified untill hee was cast into the Sea Ionas 1.12 15. And thus Caine when he went out into the field to slay his brother Abel Gen. 4.8 to 15. Corah Dathan and Ahiram with those two hundred and fifty Captaines when they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron Num. 16.32 Haman when he went out unto the King to procure that bloody decree against the Iewes Ester 3.9 Absalom when hee rose up against his Father to usurpe the Kingdome 2 Sam. 15. The 42. children when they followed the Prophet calling him bald-head 2 Kin. 2.23.24 The seduced Prophet when he went beyond his commission set him by God 1 King 13. The two Captaines and their fifties when they went to apprehend Eliah 2 King 1.10.12 Iudas when he went unto the high Priests to sell his Master and backe with the Officers to betray him with a kisse Marke 14. and lastly Paul before his conversion when hee went with authority from the high Priests to persecute the Christians at Damascus Acts 9.1 2. they were all out of their way but how did they speed I need not tell you vvhat fearefull revenges and sudden destruction they met vvithall in their journeys onely the last vvas crost vvith a blessing and instead of judgement received mercy though thou canst no more presume to fare as hee did then I can presume to live and have the same strength forty yeares hence that I have at this present because it hapned to be so vvith Caleb Ioshua 14.11 § 55. VVHerefore looke to it in time Vse and application of the former doctrine and if thou meanest not to meet vvith destruction by the vvay keepe out of the vvorlds road you see this your reason is saplesse and vvants vveight to bee received yea vvee may say of this common objection as Ierom said of the Pelagian Heresies even a repetition of it is a sufficient refutation of it neither needs it any other confutation but derision and a meer hissing at You see that al vvho follovv example vvhether of the greatest number or the greatest men or the greatest Schollers or the best men or reason or good intentions are miserably deluded and that things ought to bee judged by Law and not by examples that Gods precepts must be our only presidents and that this onely evidences a good conscience vvhen the maine vveight vvhich sets the vvheeles on vvorke is the conscience of Gods Commandement As for thy translating and laying the fault of thy drinking upon others that is but a meere pretence it faring vvith thee as it did vvith Harpaste a blind vvoman in Seneca's family vvho mindles of her ovvn infirmity complained that the house vvas darke vvherein she vvas or as it did vvith another spoken of by the same Seneca vvho having a thorne in his foot imputed the cause of his limping to the roughnesse of the vvay for if thine ovvn heart vvere not vile and vvicked custome and evill example could no more svvay thee then it doth some other men vvho shine as lights in the midst of this crooked generation yea thou vvouldest therfore redeeme the time because the dayes are evill Ephes 5.16 Alasse no man that hath grace in his heart vvill make the badnes of the times a cloak to excuse his conformity in drinking and vvasting of his precious hovvres vvickedly but rather a spur to incite him to be so much the more carefull not to be svvayed with the common streame Happy is that man who makes anothers vices steps to climbe to heaven by and so doth every wise and good man Even the mud of the world by the industrious Hollander is turned to an usefull fuell and the Mariner that hath Sea-roome can make any winde serve to set him forward in his wished voyage And good reason have they to make this use of the corruption of the times for if the aire be generally infectious had wee not need bee so much the more strict in our diet and carefull in the use of wholesome preservatives Generallity of assent is no warrant for any act we that are Christians must not live by prophane examples but by Gods holy precepts Indeed common errors carry away
many who inquire not into the reason of ought but the practice and judge of truth not by weight or value of voices but by the number But what sayes the Proverbe of bad customes bad opinions and bad servants They are better to hang then to keepe I confesse where the Law written doth faile we ought to observe what is approved by manners and custome but though in this case custome be of great authority yet it never brings prejudice to a manifest verity and there are other cases wherein singularity is not lawfull only but laudable when vice groweth into fashion singularity is a vertue when sanctity is counted singularity happy is he that goeth alone and resolves to be an Example to others and when either evill is to be done or good to be neglected how much better is it to goe the right way alone then to erre with company Yea most happy is he that can stand upright when the world declines and can endeavour to repaire the common ruine with a constancy in goodnesse that can resolve with Ioshuah what ever the world doth yet I and my house will serve the Lord Iosh 24.15 It was Noah's happinesse in the old world that he followed not the worlds fashions he beleeved alone when all the world contested against him and he was saved alone when all the world perished without him It was Lot's happinesse that he followed not the fashions of Sodom It was Abraham's happinesse that he did not like the Chaldeans Daniel's happinesse that he did not like the Babylonians It was good for Iob that he was singular in the land of Vzz good for Tobias that he was singular in Ninive good for Annanias that he was singular in Damasco good for Nichodemus that he was singular among the Rulers as now they all finde to their great comfort and exceeding great reward Yea it was happy for Ruben that he was opposite to all his brethren happy for Caleb and Ioshua that they were opposite to the rest of the spyes happy for the Iewes that their customes were divers and contrary to all other people though Haman was pleased to make it their great and heynous crime Ester 3.8 happy for Luther that he was opposite to the rest of his country And no lesse happy shall wee bee if with the Deere we can feed against the winde of popular applause if with the Sturgion and Crab-fish we can swimme against the streame of custome and example if with Atticus we can cleave to the right though losing side or if we doe not we shall misse of the narrow way and consequently faile of entring in at the straite Gate for the greatest part shuts out God upon earth and is excluded from God elsewhere Math. 7.13 14. But the graciously prudent will in things not indifferent rather doe well alone then let it alone and thinke it no disparagement to be singular among the vicious yea they know if the cause be good the more stiffe and constant the mind is so much the better If Jesus Christ and his twelve Apostles be of their side they care not though Herod and Pontius Pilate and all the Rulers and the whole nation of the Iewes together with a world of the Roman faction be against them And indeed if thou wert not a foole thou wouldest thinke it better to be in the small number of Christs little flocke which are to be saved then in the numerous heards of those Goates which are destinated to destruction And so your excuses are taken away and all proved vaine coverings even no better then Fig-leaves which though they may seeme to cover thy nakednesse from such as thy selfe yet they will stand thee in no steede another day Wherfore drink not without thirst here that you may not thirst without drink herafter Lu. 16.24.25 Play not the foole as Lysimachus did who being in battell against the Scythians for the satisfying of his appetite onely and to procure a little drinke to quench his thirst gave himselfe over into his enemies hands and when he had drunke his fill and was haled and leading away captive into perpetuall misery while he saw his countrimen returne home with joy began to acknowledge his folly in these words O said he for how little pleasure what great liberty what sweet felicity have I lost and forgone Yea turne your laughter into sorrow your feasting into fasting be revenged of your selves of your lusts and meete your God and make your peace while now we call and you heare yea the Lord of his mercy awaken men out of the dead sleepe of this sinne that so seeing their danger they may be brought to confesse and forsake it that so they may be saved Pro. 28.13 § 56. BUt what doe I admonishing That drunkards have no faith in the Scriptures or speaking sence to a drunkard this is to make him turne the deafe eare and a stone is as capable of good counsell as hee besides they have no faith in the Scriptures they will not beleeve what is written therefore they shall feele what is written Wherefore politicall physicke the fittest for them In the meane time it were very fit if it pleased Authority they were debarred both of the blood of the Grape and the spirit of Barley a just punishment for consuming the countries fat for even cleere rocke water were good enough for such Gormundizers except we had the water of Clitorius a Well in the midst of Arcadia which causeth the drinker of it to loath wine for ever after I doe not wish them stoned to death as God commanded such ryoters and drunkards to be under the Law Deut. 21.20.21 nor banished the land as the Romans did all vicious and voluptuous persons that the rest might not be endangered and Lycurgus all inventers of new fashions least these things should effeminate all their young men for then I thinke the land would be much unpeopled Indeed I could wish there were Pest-houses provided for them in all places as there are for infected persons or that they were put by themselves in some City if any were big enough to receive them all as Philip King of Macedon built a city of purpose and peopled it with the most wicked gracelesse and irregular persons of all his subjects and having so done called it Poneropolis that is the City of wicked persons And certainely if it were considered how many Brokers of villany which live onely upon the spoyles of young hopes every populous place affords whose very acquaintance is destruction the like meanes of prevention would be thought profitable for our times Yea this were marvelously expedient considering the little good they doe being as so many loose teeth in the Mandible of the Common-wealth which were better out then in and the great hurt by their ill examples by devouring the good creatures of God which they never sweat for by disturbing the peace of the Church and Common-wealth by pulling downe heauy judgments upon the land and